Cebu City— To reduce shipping companies’ operation costs amid rising fuel prices, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said here on Tuesday he had ordered the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) to extend the suspension of of terminal fees at government-run seaports.
I have issued an instruction yesterday to finish as soon as possible the waiver of the P500 terminal fee,” Tugade told reporters.
He quoted PPA general manager Jay Santiago as saying the waiver of the P500-terminal fee at seaports had already expired.
“I told him to appeal to his board to extend it for two or three months so we can help shipowners,” Tugade said.
Tugade said that waiving the collection of the P500-terminal fee can reduce the cost of shipping firms’ operations by 20 percent.
Apart from waiving terminal fees, the Transportation chief hinted at the possibility of providing fuel subsidies for the maritime sector.
“If there is a subsidy for the road transport sector, let us see if we can give a subsidy for the maritime sector,” he said.
The Department of Transportation, through the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, is giving out fuel cash cards to public utility vehicle drivers and operators amounting to P6,500 for March and another P6,500 for April.
Tugade also said prefers to subsidize portions of airlines’ fuel costs than to approve a higher fuel
surcharge, which would be passed on to the air traveling public, amid the skyrocketing petroleum prices.
“As much as possible let us avoid increasing the fuel surcharge because it will be passed on to passengers, which then will increase cost of travel,” Tugade told reporters at the sideline of Cebu Pacific’s 26th anniversary celebration at Mactan Cebu International Airport.
Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) had upgraded the fuel surcharge rate for March 1 to April 30, 2022 period to Level 4, after it considered that the price of jet fuel averaged $95.35 per barrel for December 2021 to January 2022.
Under Level 4 of the Fuel Surcharge Matrix, airlines may collect a fuel surcharge of P108 to P411 for domestic flights and P543 to P5,026 for international flights.
However, another upgrade of the fuel surcharge can be triggered as jet fuel price already reached $161 per barrel as of March 25, 2022, up 141.5% year-on-year, based on the data from the International Air Transport Association.
Tugade, however, said he wanted to keep the cost of air travel at a minimum.
The Transportation chief said the government will look into the possibility of providing subsidies for the aviation sector.
“We will look into the possibility of providing fuel subsidy similar to what has been given to the road sector.” GMANews
